Holding Space

The value of neutrality and intent

When holding space there is intent to create an energetic space that is only energy and nothing more. This space can be created for an individual, a group, a situation or circumstance, a business, a nation and even a planet. It is source energy amplified through you as a vehicle and held; available for use by another.

Holding space is not prayer per se. Prayer, proper prayer does not petition but gives thanks. That is why wording in prayer is so vital.

We are encouraged to present our prayers in a thankful way full of gratitude for what we have, rather than spewing words of request and entitlement. Holding space has no requests, no intended thanksgiving. It is only a space of energy.

Thoughts and words are heard by the Universe. Like the old adage, Be Careful What You Think/Say Because You Might Get It, our thoughts and words are recognized as our intention.

The intention of holding space is a position of neutrality. You are creating an etheric space of energy that can be drawn upon by the one in need.

It is not an exercise in Loving Kindness, it is not Metta, it is not Tonglin. There is no specific thought other than availability.

This is an important practice in ones spiritual life because it is an offering of energy that is needed for a resolution of some kind. The offer holds absolutely no intention for one resolution over another.

Holding space is simply an availability of source energy for whatever the receiver(s) may intend or need. It is a support of the recipient and how they choose to use their free will.

The best example I can think of is when attending a healing where a spiritual (energy) healer is offering to initiate healing. Healing requires the one being healed to do most of the work.

A lot of people think that the healer does the work but that isn’t the case. The path to consciousness requires each of us to heal ourselves. The healer helps, no doubt, but going forward from the healing experience the healed must put energy into their own healing or it won’t stick.

At a healing circle the other participants create an energy space – a holding space for the healer and the healed to draw from for this important work. No one in the room knows what the healed needs or what the healer is specifically working on except those two people.

But the energy created and available for the work is generated and held for both the healer and the healed to draw upon so that the work may be successful. It is a reservoir of goodwill freely offered with absolute neutrality.

The holding space can be used for conflicts or consternations both big and small. I have used it for family issues that don’t directly include me. I can offer source energy through me into the situation and know that because it is of the highest vibration and absolute neutrality it will, in the end, manifest the highest and best.

I was intrigued by this concept and when considering how to explore this in my artwork I came up with small fabric constructions that were influenced by the mandorla. What I came up with looks more like a small shrine.

The energy generated for holding space needed an artistic container and that container would allow the continuance of the energy after the creator stopped generating it. This is much how a shrine works.

My intent is to allow the viewer to hold space for someone and place it into the small fabric construction in a ritualistic way but of course one can use it any way they like. If the viewer sees only a shrine and has a specific intent for it then so be it.

I learned a long time ago that the artist’s intent does not mean a bag of beans to what the viewer’s interpretation is. I co-create and let it go and smile and nod my head when the viewer explains to me what the piece means.

The act of co-creation, for me, has to become an act of neutrality much like the act of holding space. I am invested in my work while in the process but afterward I consciously decide how I feel about a piece and what it means to me and then I let it go.

I have to let it go because no one else, even if they want to know how about a particular artwork, will get the same thing out of it. What you view (experience) becomes a part of you because you form your own perspective on it; your own truth, if you will.

Each piece is a great mystery of holding space that must be finished and then released out into the Universe. I catch the idea, the inspiration and then release it like a silvery squiggling fish out into the stream of All That Is. Embrace the Mystery.